It's not uncommon for Microsoft's Summer of Arcade downloadable games to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for a window of time, as evidenced by today's announcement that Castlevania: Harmony of Despair would be arriving on the PlayStation 3 roughly a year after the game's original XBLA release. However, Ubisoft is breaking from the norm, as the publisher today announced that this year's Summer of Arcade title From Dust will arrive on PCs July 27, the same day it hits Xbox 360s.
From Dust will debut on PC and Xbox 360 simultaneously. From Dust casts players as a supernatural force looking out for indigenous tribes in a seeming paradise beset by natural disasters. By transporting land, water, vegetation, and lava around tropical environs, players can open up new pathways for villagers and protect them from earthquakes and other calamities. The various threats in the game can also be turned to the players' advantage; for example, a well-placed tsunami could extinguish wildfires rather than sweep away villages.
The game is the latest project from designer Eric Chahi. The developer is best known for his 1991 platforming puzzle game Another World, which was released in North America as Out of This World. The game made use of rotoscoped graphics for a number of its animations and was featured in the 2011 Game Developers Conference's program of classic game postmortems.
From Dust will sell for $15 on Ubisoft's own downloadable storefront, as well as Steam, GameStop, and other downloadable game purveyors. A PS3 version of the game has also been announced, but Ubisoft has no current release window for the game.
For more on From Dust, check out GameSpot's latest preview.